Maelstrom
by jazzpha
Summary: Yoruichi decides to play matchmaker for a frustrated Kuchiki prince and an equally fiery Shiba princess. When the two nobles clash, a flame is sparked that threatens to consume them both. Set during the nine-year gap of the Pendulum Arc. Byakuya/Kuukaku
1. Catalyst

**Disclaimer: **Bleach does not belong to me, it belongs to Tite Kubo. This story, however, is mine.

**Important A/N: **Before any of my frequent readers break out their torches and pitchforks at the thought of me starting another story, know that this one is already **100% complete**. I wanted to finish it before I posted the chapters individually specifically so I wouldn't be juggling even more stories. So rest assured: this is no longer taking time away from my other projects.

**Maelstrom**

**Chapter 1: **Catalyst

* * *

The heir of the Kuchiki clan stared into the mischievous, twinkling golden eyes across from him and frowned deeply, trying to resist the overwhelming impulse to kill something.

"Please tell me you're joking," he ground out, hoping that none of his underlying fear made it through into his voice. The last thing Byakuya Kuchiki needed was for Yoruichi Shihoin to know she'd actually made him scared. He must have succeeded, because the Captain just shook her head and laughed.

"This is no joke, Byakuya-bo," Yoruichi said with a smile. "You need a girlfriend to help ya loosen up before you give yourself a heart attack. But since you keep refusing all of those heiresses they parade in front of you day in and day out, I thought I'd be a good friend and act as a go-between with the one house that has yet to be approached by your elders."

Byakuya lost his frown as his violet-gray eyes widened in shock, his mind utterly incapable of believing what he had just heard come out of his sensei's mouth.

"You call siccing Kuukaku Shiba on me being a _friend_? Are you out of your mind!?"

"Oh, come _on_, kid," Yoruichi sighed. "Stop talking about her like she's some kind of wild animal; once you get to know her, she's actually quite nice."

"She beat ten men twice her size to a pulp in a bar in Zaraki a week ago, Shihoin! With _one hand_!" Byakuya half-shouted. "How is that not insane? Why would the daughter of a noble family go cavorting around the most violent place in Soul Society unless she had some kind of underlying death wish?! No," he finished with a huff. "I refuse to be seen with her."

But Yoruichi remained undaunted; her student had given her ammunition, and she was going to use it without pity.

"Sounds like someone's been keeping tabs on her exploits," she said slyly as she took a sip of tea, and the young prince's gaze turned murderously stoic even as the lightest tint of red became visible on his face.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Shihoin," he replied as evenly as he could. "Now, do you have any further business here?" Normally he wouldn't be so civil, but under the roof of the Kuchiki household Byakuya was expected to behave every inch like the poised heir he was supposed to be. And so that was how he would act, even if that meant he couldn't call his sensei a bitch. Which was a shame, because right now he wanted nothing more than to scream that at the top of his lungs.

"No," Yoruichi answered with supreme smugness as she finished her tea, rose and began to walk past her student towards the door, "I think I'm done here. See you the day tomorrow for your lesson, Byakuya-bo, and I expect a full report on tomorrow's rendezvous."

"Go rot in hell," he growled once Yoruichi had vanished in a flash of _shunpo_, taking a liberal gulp of tea and soon discovering that it was still quite scalding. Spitting it out and snarling, Byakuya cast a quick _kido_ spell to cure his burned tongue before leaving the common room in a flash and emerging in his own private chambers.

Damn that woman. Damn her to a thousand fiery demises, and then six more for good measure. What the hell did she think she was doing, pulling rank as a noble and throwing him to the mercy of Kuukaku Shiba? It was true that the prince had no interest in the myriad sycophantic young women who clearly wanted to marry him as a political move. At the same time, though, Byakuya knew just how volatile Kuukaku could be, and wrestling with someone that strong-willed would be more of an extended military campaign than a courtship.

Realizing where his thoughts were leading him, the prince shook his head and mentally smacked himself across the face. All Yoruichi had set up was a meeting; he could just show up, act like a total reprobate and that would be that. No further commitment necessary, water under the bridge, blood washed from his hands and all that. So why had his mind immediately assumed _courtship_ would be part of the deal?

He needed to get some air fast, before he did something horrible to either himself or to a small, innocent and possibly furry animal. Walking as calmly as he could out of his room, Byakuya's path crossed with a small cluster of servants. As they saw him they all stopped what they were doing and bowed hurriedly, as if they were afraid of being decapitated by his zanpakuto for their sluggishness.

"Good afternoon, Kuchiki-sama," they all said in unison. "May we assist you in any way, sir?"

"Is there anything you need?"

"Food perhaps?"

"Or tea?"

"_No!_" the prince snapped a little more harshly than intended, frustration and claustrophobia pushing him over the edge. The servants scattered to the four winds faster than Yoruichi's _shunpo_, leaving Byakuya feeling even worse than he had been before. Just as he hung his head with a sigh and was about to resign himself to an evening of self-pitying drunkenness, however, the voice of his advisor, Kochi, broke through Byakuya's stupor.

"Care to tell me why those poor servants were running like their heels were on fire just now, Byakuya?" he asked with a hint of wry amusement to his voice. "Did they question the masculinity of your _shikai_?"

"No," the heir replied evenly, "they did not, and your wit is in poor taste as usual, old man." The nickname carried a subtle hint of affection and Byakuya's lips quirked up slightly as he spoke, before returning to their practiced thin line. If there was one man alive who could give Byakuya Kuchiki a hard time and live to tell about it, it was Kochi. He had been the prince's tutor since the young man's grandfather had passed on years ago, and knew him better than Byakuya's own father.

"Please tell me you have some good news for me, Kochi," Byakuya said almost pleadingly, his heart falling into his stomach as the old man's eyes twinkled apologetically and he replied.

"Unfortunately, child," the advisor began hesitantly, "her lady Mitara Zashigen has just arrived, and insisted to be allowed to have an audience with you. Seeing as how you had already demurred twice, I figured a third refusal would be going a touch too far."

"Quite," the prince ground out, his hand reflexively clutching the hilt of Senbonzakura as his steely eyes glanced around for something to hack to pieces. Kochi sighed, feeling the young man's pain. The Zashigen were old money, silver barons; outside of the 'Noble Families', but powerful enough to know their strength and be insufferably arrogant besides. Mitara, the eldest daughter of the family and current Clan Head, was spoiled enough to make Second Division Fifth Seat Omaeda seem as humble as a saint.

"I wish there was something I could do to assuage your discomfort," Kochi began, holding out his sake flask conspiratorially, "but alas…"

Byakuya smiled in gratitude at the gesture, but shook his head.

"As much as I would love to spike my tea, old man, I need my wits about me if I am to spar with the harpy."

The tutor's dark eyes twinkled again, this time in mischief, and he smiled.

"Who said the sake was for _your_ tea?"

Byakuya took the flask, slipped it into his robes and left the room.

* * *

"Oh, Kuchiki-san," Mitara said with blatantly over-played coquettishness, "it's so nice to finally be able to dine with you. This _udon_ is simply superb," she finished, making a point of slurping in a particularly long noodle afterwards. Byakuya fought hard to keep his revulsion from rising to his expression and replied.

"Indeed. The chefs prepare it over the course of several hours, to make sure the flavors are particularly strong and have a chance to mingle." _It's one of my favorite meals and you're ruining it, you conceited gold-digger,_ he added in his head, keeping a formal smile on his face to mask a clenched jaw.

"So," the Zashigen princess rejoined after suggestively mangling a poor shrimp with a series of languorous chews, "I hear that your father is feeling unwell, Byakuya. My condolences, my condolences…"

_Because that is _exactly _what I want to discuss right now, you amoral shrew…_ Kuchiki simmered internally as Mirata droned on and on.

"… but if he were to die, would you not be the next in line to succeed him? In several years, of course, Gods willing," she added insincerely to avoid an outright gaffe, but the prince could read her like an open book with moldy pages and a rotting spine.

Just as he was about to reply, however, the sound of the tea-kettle shrilly announcing it was finished reached the pair. Byakuya excused himself with a nod he at least hoped looked disappointed and rose, walking quickly into the kitchen and intercepting the tea before any of the servants could get their hands on it. Withdrawing the flask and sniffing tentatively as he uncorked it, Kuchiki smiled as he smelled the sake.

"You really pulled no punches, did you, old man?" Byakuya murmured as he emptied the contents into the cup intended for Mirata. "Thank you."

Rejoining his lunch companion as soon as the deed was done, the prince handed her the spiked tea and tried not to look ecstatic while doing so. A few short minutes after she finished the drink, the Zashigen Clan leader was out cold and snoring most obnoxiously. Kuchiki promptly called in her attendant, who gazed down at his mistress with a look of surprise.

"It appears as though the lady Zashigen has suffered a fainting spell," Byakuya said evenly, as if he was reporting the weather. "Might I advise you take Mirata back to her chambers, and let her sleep it off?"

The attendant nodded rapidly and vanished, leaving Byakuya to finish his _udon_ in peace and quiet.

"What a lightweight," he mused as he ate the soup. "There couldn't have been more than three shots in there… and she snores like a bear, to boot!" the prince shook his head ruefully, finishing off the savory broth with a gulp. As his mind ran through the women he had already flatly denied and those that were still prospective spouses, Byakuya's heart sank once again as he realized that they might as well have all been the same person.

"Is there any way out of this?" he asked no one in particular while running both hands through his hair in dismay. Senbonzakura took this chance to chime in with the last answer her partner wanted to hear, her smooth voice sly inside his head.

'Well,' she said, 'there is _one_ way, kid…'

"No," the prince refused flatly. He wasn't going to give the demon-cat the satisfaction he knew she would get when one of those SMC snakes reported that he had gone to her arranged meeting. He wasn't going to, damn it; he _wasn't_…

"Fuck it," he grit out, uttering a rare curse as his willpower finally snapped. "At this point, I'd be willing to court a Hollow. And at least Kuukaku's attractive, if a bit crazed. Besides, it's only a meeting, right?"

Senbonzakura just laughed as she faded back into the recesses of her partner's mind, saying nothing more. Byakuya broke his chopsticks clean in two, got up and flashed away to his private chambers before collapsing on his bed to get some rest.

The prince was going to need every hour of sleep he could get: he might have dodged the harpy that was Mirata Zashigen though trickery, but the only way to survive the bull that was Kuukaku Shiba would be grabbing her by the horns and praying he didn't get gored.

* * *

**A/N: **So there you have it, the first chapter of the story! The other ones are all edited and ready to go, so I'll either update on a weekly basis, or sooner if there's enough interest (hint, hint). I'm **_not_** holding this story hostage for reviews, though... they might just make the next installment post a bit earlier than a week from now. Hope you're enjoying the story so far!


	2. Rules of Engagement

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Bleach, or any of its characters. Tite Kubo does. This story, however, is mine.

**Maelstrom**

**Chapter 2: **Rules of Engagement

* * *

"Is purple too gaudy? I think it's too gaudy."

The helper sighed.

"Then why don't we go with red? You seemed to be leaning that way twenty minutes ago…"

"No, red's too aggressive. I don't want to send the wrong signal… maybe I should just go with white?"

"Gods damn it, Byakuya," Kochi shouted in exasperation, dropping the garment he was holding into a heap on the floor, "you're worse than my wife was, may she rest in peace. It's not hard, just pick a color! Why do you even care what sort of impression you make, anyway?" the tutor prodded. "This is just a one-time thing, right? Isn't that what you were so adamant about earlier?"

"Well, yes," the prince replied stubbornly, "but I'm not about to go in there looking like a bum, either. I might _act_ like an uncouth, slovenly wastrel, but if I'm going to go down in flames I at least want to look good while doing so."

"No, you don't," the old man shot back as he draped Byakuya in the white kimono. "You look fine in all of these, child. That means you're not just trying to look good, you're trying to look _handsome_. You're in this for the long haul, whether you want to admit it to yourself or not."

"Just shut up and try red again," Kuchiki fumed, and Kochi's pursed lips twitched up into a smirk.

"Trying to hide a blush, are we?" he teased, and Byakuya's frown deepened, as did the shade of his cheeks.

"I hate you."

* * *

"What are you doing here, Yoruichi?" the green-eyed, dark-haired and one-armed Shiba princess groused. "Come to twist the dagger in my back a bit harder?"

"Aw, come on, Kuukaku," the Captain cajoled her younger friend. "Give it a shot."

The noble snorted derisively as she reached for her white bandage hair-covering.

"Yeah, because forced, awkward conversation is always how true love starts; gimme a break. Hey!" Shiba shouted as Yoruichi batted her hand away from the long white strip of cloth. "What gives?"

"You're entertaining a potential suitor," Shihoin parried as she dangled the cloth in front of her like string before a kitten, "not sparing with your older brother."

"A potential suitor?" Kuukaku scoffed, "Are you kidding? Byakuya's turned down women that most guys I know would give up their arms and legs to sleep with. He plays for the other team, without a doubt."

"I highly doubt that," Yoruichi replied dryly, "but if that is the case then there's nothing for you to be nervous about, is there?"

"Who says I'm nervous?" Shiba half growled, and if she hadn't been anxious before she definitely became so when she saw a devilish grin spread over Yoruichi's face.

"I don't know if you've noticed it," she purred as she circled her friend like the cat she was, "but you're wearing your wooden arm."

"What's so odd about that?" Kuukaku asked, looking down at the finely-carved cedar appendage. "I wear this thing all the time, Shihoin."

"Not when you've had visitors of the male persuasion, kid," Yoruichi answered with her typically feline grin. "Usually you hope that your lack of an arm will scare them off, and it almost always does. So why, pray tell, are you wearing it now?"

"Because it'll sting more when I punch him with it," the princess spat, tearing the cloth away from her friend and putting it back down on the table. "Why did you even set this up again, Yoruichi?"

"Oh, no reason," the Captain replied glibly as she walked out of the door, right as a messenger arrived. "Have fun!"

"Bitch," Shiba snarled, and the messenger quailed under her decidedly murderous gaze.

"What is it?"

"Kuchiki-sama is here to see you," he half-stammered out. Kuukaku straightened up her robes with a sigh, cracked her neck and walked calmly out of the room to greet her surprise suitor.

"Good afternoon, Kuchiki-san," she said cordially as she stepped out into the main room, her eyes shut in the middle of a blink. When she opened them, the Shiba princess' first thought was a surge of gratitude that she hadn't opened her eyes in the middle of the sentence, because the form in front of her made her mouth go dry.

Byakuya had decided, after much teeth gnashing, to go with a white kimono and matching hakama, joined by a black silk obi tied around his waist. Overlaying that ensemble was a sleeveless deep crimson haori, embroidered with silver thread and bordered at the bottom by golden flames that seemed to flicker in the light against their background. His violet-gray eyes seemed to be in a permanent state of smoldering with intensity, and his dark hair fell unbound to just past his shoulders. The prince bowed as was custom, before bringing his gaze back up once again to lock with Kuukaku's sea-green eyes.

"Lady Shiba," he said in a voice that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "It is a privilege to be granted the pleasure of your company."

It was a scripted opener, of course, but that didn't stop Byakuya from delivering it like a master thespian.

"It was my pleasure to extend it," the princess replied smoothly, stepping into her role as cultured noble with total ease. "Shall we have some tea?"

"That would be delightful," Kuchiki answered, and soon enough the pair were sitting across from each other sipping on cups of black tea. The attendants along the walls filed out as everything seemed to be going according to protocol, an act which allowed both of the nobles to relax both their postures and their tongues.

"So, I take it Yoruichi dragged you over here?" Kuukaku asked, and Byakuya shook his head.

"She merely acted as the go-between," he replied smoothly. "I came here of my own accord." Shiba raised an eyebrow at the answer, her curiosity piqued.

"Oh, really?" she retorted. "What went wrong; the last princess decide you weren't good enough after all, and now you're crawling to the runt of the litter?"

"Hardly," Kuchiki parried. "The last sycophant I had to entertain was so vapid I wound up spiking her tea with sake. She couldn't even take three shots without passing out colder than a bum in Inuzuri."

Kuukaku's estimation of the prince rose just then, but she was careful not to let it show. Her eyes were drawn then to the beautiful haori he was wearing, and Byakuya noticed her interest.

"This was made in the design of the ancient Kuchiki war haori, which was worn by my ancestors before the formation of the Gotei and the creation of the Divisions," he explained, and Shiba's eyes gleamed.

"Going on any campaigns, Kuchiki-san?" Kuukaku teased, and she was rewarded with a sly smirk.

"I was taught that it pays to be prepared, Lady Shiba," he answered, and a twin smile slowly crept across the princess' face.

"A wise philosophy," she agreed. "And please, call me Kuukaku; if my brother heard someone other than the help referring to me as 'Lady Shiba', I'd never hear the end of it."

"Very well," Byakuya replied with a small nod. "Likewise, you may refer to me as Byakuya. 'Kuchiki-san' is my father."

"Why, thank you for the permission, Byakuya," Kuukaku said with mock-gratefulness, grinning sharply. "Your benevolence is truly stunning."

The prince let the sarcasm glide past him, taking a silent pull on his cup of tea. As he put the cup down once again, his eyes fell on Shiba's wooden arm and narrowed.

"That is carved from cedar, is it not?" he asked, and the princess' eyes widened slightly in surprise before she regained her composure a heartbeat later. Usually the first reaction the wooden arm got from people was the question of how she came to need it; no one had ever mentioned the type of wood before.

"Yes, it is," she answered, he tone slightly wary. "Why do you ask?"

"My curiosity simply compelled me," the prince said as his eyes returned to normal and he took another sip of his tea, "nothing more."

"I see," Kuukaku spoke evenly, but internally resolved to figure out how why Byakuya had pointed that out. "I've always preferred oak, myself," she continued, betraying nothing of her thoughts in the tone of her voice, "but since cedar was in abundance thanks to our grove of it, expediency won out over taste."

Kuchiki simply nodded while filing that fact away for later, should it become pertinent. As an awkward lull settled between the pair, an impromptu visitor walked into the room abruptly and shattered it.

"This isn't where I left my zanpakuto…" Kaien Shiba said lamely while he took a few more steps into the large room, stopping as two pairs of eyes turned to stare at him, one in annoyance and one in mild anger.

"What're you doing here, bro?" Kuukaku asked after another moment had passed, and the recently-elected Head of the Shiba clan shrugged.

"Nothin'," he deflected as he turned around and walked out, casting one last look over his shoulder.

"That punk hasn't made a pass at you, has he, sis?"

"Yes, actually," the princess ground out with forced civility, resisting the temptation to knock her sibling's teeth out, "he has. Why, are you jealous?"

Kaien snorted derisively and left the room in a whisper of _shunpo_, leaving Byakuya feeling more uncomfortable than before.

"Your brother doesn't like me very much, does he?" he asked, and Kuukaku laughed. The sound was so different from the obnoxious little twitters of the common noblewoman that it seemed almost out of place, but then again _everything_ about Kuukaku Shiba was out of place compared to the run-of-the-mill princess.

"Who cares what he thinks?" she shot back. "I love him, but my brother's a total blockhead half the time. Hey," Shiba continued, her voice changing tones suddenly, "d'you wanna take this elsewhere? I know Yoruichi pressured you into this, but the least we can do is have some fun while we're at it."

Byakuya was stung by Kuukaku's refusal to believe his earlier claim that he had come here of his own volition, which was indeed true, but he kept that to himself.

"What did you have in mind?"

"There's an awesome bar I know down in Zaraki; let's go there, knock back some shots and call it a day."

The Kuchiki prince's jaw might have hit the floor, but he was too numb from shock to know for sure.

"Zaraki?" he repeated dumbly. "Are you out of your—" here he paused for a moment, reconsidered and then continued. "Actually, forget that question. Now I _know_ you're insane. If I go into a place like Zaraki dressed like this, I might as well hang a sign around my neck that says 'I'm a stupid, ignorant rich kid! Please, gut me in an alley, strip my corpse of all its valuables and leave me for the dogs!'"

Kuukaku had to fight to hold back a genuine smile at Byakuya's reaction. So he was still an idiot, but at least he had enough spine not to be intimidated by her and enough fire in his veins to speak his mind. Maybe this wouldn't be such a wasted afternoon after all.

"We're not going dressed like this, you moron," the princess parried, already assuming Kuchiki would participate in the excursion. "I have civilian clothes in my room, and you can borrow some from Ganju. He's my little brother, before you ask."

Byakuya raised an eyebrow at the insinuation.

"Are you saying I'm equal in stature to your younger sibling, Kuukaku?" he asked with some iciness in his voice, and Shiba shook her head.

"I'm saying the last thing you want is to try and borrow clothes from Kaien. The last guy he had a little 'heart-to-heart' with wound up running out of here crying like a little bitch. Besides," she finished with a smirk, unable to resist the opportunity to get under Byakuya's skin again, "Ganju's clothes may be a bit tight on you, but muscles that defined deserve to be shown off."

Kuukaku stuck around just long enough to see the Kuchiki prince struggle to avoid choking on his own tongue before vanishing with a cackle. Byakuya snapped back to reality an instant later, getting to his feet and sighing. Yes, this woman was certifiably crazy, that was for sure. But hopefully, he thought as his lips twitched up into a smirk yet again, she wasn't also a lightweight; he wasn't going to go easy on her just because she was a woman… with an obscenely gorgeous figure…

Wait, what? Where had _that_ come from? The prince hastily shook off that line of thought and vanished, before he gave his mind any more chances to play tricks on him.

* * *

"Okay," the Kuchiki prince conceded as they stood outside of the bar, clad in nondescript brown clothes and hiding their zanpakuto underneath their cloaks, "I'll admit it, this doesn't look too bad. At least no one's being butchered in there."

Kuukaku cupped her hand to her ear theatrically, putting on a surprised expression.

"Why, Byakuya," she said in a hushed tone, "what's that I hear? I believe it's your balls finally dropping! Welcome to manhood, Kuchiki; let's go get hammered and celebrate!"

"You bitch," the prince hissed as he closed his hand around Senbonzakura's hilt, his pride pushed beyond the breaking point. Just as he began to draw the zanpakuto from its sheath, however, he stopped cold as a finger and a thumb were suddenly pressing against his throat in a basic hold.

"I could snap your neck in two places before your sword got halfway to sunlight, Byakuya," Shiba said in a low, throaty growl that made a small shiver lance down Kuchiki's spine. "You sure you wanna keep your hand on that hilt?"

Byakuya froze, his knuckles turning white around the hilt of his blade before he slowly relaxed them.

"Is every woman with more than a shred of personality crazy, or do the Gods just hate me?" he groaned, and Kuukaku flashed a genuine smile.

"Both, probably," she said with an undercurrent of wicked glee, before laughing and slapping Kuchiki on the shoulder.

"C'mon, Byakuya," she encouraged, "let's go. How much you want to bet I can drink you under the table?"

"Winner foots the bill?" Byakuya proposed with resurgent confidence, and Shiba's face lit up at the challenge.

"Done," she answered promptly, clasping hands with the prince to seal the deal before the duo walked into the torch-lit bar. Grabbing a pair of stools, the two disguised nobles ordered a jug of sake each and got down to business. Three shots in Kuchiki was starting to wince at the poor quality of the alcohol that seared as it passed down his throat, but there was no way he was going to bend or break in front of Kuukaku Shiba.

"Stings, don't it," Kuukaku taunted as she caught the twinge in Byakuya's facial muscles when he worked through another shot. "This ain't your grandfather's top-of-the-line sake, pal. This is what separates the strong from the weak, the men from the whiny little punks."

The prince smiled, seeing his opening and pouncing.

"Well, last I check you're not a man, Kuukaku," he parried, "so doesn't that make you a 'whiny little punk'?"

Shiba smiled gamely and downed another shot, gulping it with a flourish.

"I'm the exception that proves the rule, pretty boy," the princess answered, and Byakuya's eyes flared as he matched his opponent once again.

"I'll take that as a compliment, woman," Kuchiki replied as evenly as he could, even when his voice began to waver at the end of the sentence.

"You're done," Kuukaku boasted triumphantly as she saw Byakuya's expression become slightly hazy. "Stop now and pay up, before you hurt yourself. I don't want to have to haul your ass all the way back to your manor in a drunken stupor, Bya-kun," she finished, using a nickname specifically designed to provoke him.

"Appearances can be deceiving, Kuukaku," the prince replied smoothly, taking down another cup without flinching. "You, of all people, should know that."

Shiba was given pause by the implications of Kuchiki's words, and took another drink to hide the affect they had on her expression. When she put her cup down, however, the princess was jarred by a thick, heavy hand landing roughly on her shoulder.

"Hey, lady," a scratchy, edged voice rumbled near Kuukaku's ear. "Why don't you ditch this pansy and come have a good time with me and my buddies?"

The princess didn't flinch even as the grip on her shoulder tightened, sea-green eyes narrowing dangerously as her hand left the sake cup and moved to inside of her robes. Byakuya's hand moved as well, and at the same moment both nobles spoke cataclysmic words.

"_Hado number 4: Byakurai_."

"_Hado number 4: Byakurai_."

The twin bolts of blue lightning ripped through one lung each, and for a very long moment afterwards as the man fell to the ground no one said or did anything. Byakuya and Kuukaku stared at each other in surprise, but before they could start arguing time caught up with them and chaos erupted in a flurry of steel and shouted profanities.

"What the hell was that for, Kuchiki?" Shiba spat over the bedlam as the pair took down Shinigami-hating thug after Shinigami-hating thug.

"What the hell was _what_ for, Shiba?" Kuchiki half-growled as Senbonzakura severed yet another artery with savage grace. "I was bailing you out, and I went for a non-lethal strike! If you hadn't been so _stupid_…"

"I had everything under control, you dumbass!" Kuukaku snarled as her wooden arm shattered another hapless bastard's jaw. "If you hadn't fired off that spell like some idiotic white knight, he'd just be unconscious and we wouldn't be here right now!"

"Remind me to never do you any favors again, hellcat," Byakuya ground out, ramming his zanpakuto through a particularly soft gut with visceral satisfaction.

"If that's what you call a favor, prick, remind me to never get on your bad side. I shudder to think what you do to people you're actually _trying_ to kill," Kuukaku replied as she slammed a head hard against a wooden table and took a berserker's delight in the squishy sound made on impact. A few moments later the bar was quiet once more, and the poor old bartender rose from his kneeling position behind the wooden structure trembling with fear.

The two nobles were breathing hard and spattered with blood by the time the brawl was over, and they immediately flashed away after sharing a quick glance. But the establishment they had left in ruins wasn't entirely unoccupied: A figure sat leisurely in the corner, a small girl perched on his shoulder who was blurry and indistinct in the dim light apart from a bright mass of pink hair atop her head.

"Hey, Ken-chan," she spoke out after a moment, "Why didn't you fight those two?"

"Eh; I ain't got no interest in fighting drunks, Yachiru, and two-on-one battles ain't my style. Besides," the man with flowing black hair and a distinctive scar running down one side of his face spoke with a wicked grin, "it looked to me like those two had some other unfinished business to attend to. C'mon, let's get outta here," Kenpachi continued as he rose sharply from his seat. "I hear there's a really good swordsman 'round these parts, and that's someone I _would_ be interested in fighting. You see a bald punk with a sword on his hip and a swagger in his step, let me know!"

"Will do, Ken-chan!" Yachiru answered with a gleeful giggle, and the two of them left the bar in search of the mysterious swordsman.

* * *

Byakuya and Kuukaku managed to tear their way through District after District of Western Rukongai as they chased after each other in a constantly shifting game of tag, all the way to the grassy hills that overlooked both the Rukongai and Seireitei. As the sweet agony of the muscle fatigue in their legs became too much to continue drawing on _shunpo_, the pair sank into the soft grass and just lay there. Sprawled out and slowly clawing their way back to equilibrium, the prince and princess once again acted in concert and, once again, experienced cataclysmic consequences.

They each rolled over onto their sides at the same moment, bringing them eye-to-eye and closing the gap between them enough that they could see their images reflected in the other's eyes. The blood, adrenaline and alcohol pounding relentlessly through the pair's veins shoved them ruthlessly to the brink of self-control, and the softly encouraging caress of their mingling, heated breath as it passed over their skin blew them insistently over the edge and sent them careening down the waiting grasp of pure impulse as the space between them disappeared with a kiss.

Byakuya was both surprised and captivated by the fire that seemed to burn deep within the Shiba princess, a strength of spirit that had been utterly lacking in every other noblewoman he'd been forced to entertain. She was truly a worthy adversary, one who could look him in the eyes without being intimidated and speak frankly without fear of repercussions. Even though he knew that pursuing Kuukaku was like a hunter chasing prey that could just as easily turn around and become the hunter in turn, he had never wanted a woman more in his life.

Kuukaku was shocked at the raw passion that seemed to rise from the Kuchiki prince and surge forward like a wave, unstoppable and intent on conquering every obstacle it came across. She quickly regained her wits and pushed back with equal strength, hell-bent on discovering just how much emotion was hidden under the calm, calculating exterior he was forced to display in public. Byakuya's mask had slipped somewhat during their earlier conversation and then completely during the vicious barfight, and Kuukaku was going to get another glimpse underneath that barrier if she had to rip it off herself.

The pair dueled for a few more moments before breaking apart, breathless and now completely exhausted but nonetheless feeling more exhilarated than either of them had in ages. Dredging up the dregs of the strength that was still in his limbs, Byakuya rolled the rest of the way over and pushed Kuukaku onto her back as he draped one arm over her abdomen and passed out. The Shiba princess moved her wooden arm up and was about to shove him off and go to sleep, but something happened that made her freeze stock-still.

The Kuchiki prince reached up with his free arm and grabbed a hold of the prosthetic limb with considerable strength, guiding it down gently so that the shoulder of the appendage was scant inches from his face. He took in a single, deep breath and then relaxed instantly, as if the smell of the wood had triggered something within him. A serene smile appeared on his face as the arm he had placed over Kuukaku's midsection tightened its grip ever so slightly, and the Shiba princess' feelings of hostility were erased completely by the change in Byakuya's demeanor. Rolling back over towards him, she let her normal arm wrap around the slumbering prince while she pulled him closer, to the point where he was resting his head in the crook of her neck and snoring softly.

As she drifted slowly off to sleep with her eyebrows furrowed in confusion over what had just happened, Kuukaku failed to see the single tear that rolled down Byakuya's cheek before splashing against the polished wood of her cedar arm.

* * *

Kuukaku woke first a few hours later, just as the sun was beginning to set and bleeding red and orange streaks across the sky. Byakuya was still slumbering quietly, his hair falling messily about his face in a way the princess found oddly endearing, so she moved carefully to avoid waking him as she rose. Shiba had almost succeeded when Kuchiki mumbled a petulant 'no' in his sleep and tightened his hold. Exasperated, Kukkaku's considerate side disappeared in the blink of an eye and she nudged Byakuya hard enough to jolt him back to reality. Violet-gray eyes snapped open sharply and the prince started, but relaxed again once his still-scrambled mind figured out where he was.

"'Afternoon, Byakushi," the princess said lazily as she stretched out on the grass, sighing in satisfaction as the cramped joints in her back shifted and settled back into place.

"Ugh," Kuchiki groaned as the last remnants of his hangover popped back up to greet him briefly before fading away for good. Opening his eyes again slowly against the glare of the dying light, he spoke slowly to the woman next to him.

"What the hell did I do earlier?" he asked, and Kuukaku's eyes clouded over with disappointment for a heartbeat at the thought that he'd forgotten what they'd shared in their last gasp of coherence a few hours ago.

"You don't remember?" she replied as evenly as she could, trying to keep the hurt from her voice. Some of it slipped past her weary defenses anyway, and Byakuya's steely eyes softened as a small smile danced across his face.

"I don't think I'm ever going to forget _that_," he answered, "even if I was smashed half to oblivion at the time. No," the prince finished, his tone shifting into something more melancholy, "I need to know if I did anything… odd… afterwards. After I fell asleep."

The Shiba princess arched an eyebrow in curiosity, her thoughts drawn back to the moment he had drifted peacefully off to sleep clutching her wooden arm. Connecting the dots with a comment Byakuya had made earlier about the prosthetic, she weighed her next words very, very carefully and spoke.

"What is it with you and cedar wood?" she asked, and Kuchiki deflated with a sigh like he was a balloon that had just been pricked. Forcing himself to sit up, he rested his crossed arms over his tucked knees and stared out thoughtfully at the horizon.

"My mother was a beautiful woman," Byakuya began slowly, his voice the far-off voice of someone who was nowhere near reality and buried deep in their memories, "and kind. Even though she was a noble, that never stopped her from going into the Rukongai day after day after day to give alms to the poor, or medicine to the sick. Even though my father told her again and again that it wasn't safe, that something was going to happen to her, she never listened."

"That sounds like a particularly stubborn someone I know," Kuukaku broke in as she sat up beside him, turning her gaze to the dying sun as well. The prince gave a small, rueful chuckle and continued.

"She had this way about her, something I never understood. She could trudge through the filthiest of places, clasp hands with the disease-ridden and the depraved, and always emerge from that cesspool as happy and glowing as she'd been before making the journey. And her voice… Gods, it was…"

Here he broke off, his voice catching in his throat as Byakuya turned his gaze down to hide his face. Kuukaku reached out and took his hand in her good one, squeezing it tightly.

"If you don't want to do this, that's fine," she said gently. "Forget I ever asked, and we can just—"

"No," Kuchiki cut her off, his voice on the edge of ragged. "You asked me a question, and I'm going to answer it." After taking in a breath to calm himself, Byakuya resumed his story.

"She had a voice that could lull a Hollow to sleep, my mother did," he said almost reverently, "and every night she would sing me the same song, no matter how old I got or how many times I told her not to."

"Why did she?"

"Because…" here he paused again, tears stinging the corner of his eyes, "because she said that if that was the last night she was going to spend with me, she wanted me to go to sleep knowing just how much she loved me."

Kuukaku put her wooden limb around the prince's shoulders, and he leaned slightly closer to her as he continued to speak

"She had a pair of cedar wood hair-sticks that she would use to keep her hair in place, and every night when I closed my eyes I could smell their was how I would know that she was there, watching over me."

"What happened to her?" the princess asked hesitantly, almost not wanting the story to arrive at its end.

Byakuya gave a rattling sigh, steeling himself mentally before proceeding to the conclusion of his tale.

"One morning, my mother decided to leave the house early and go give alms to the poor as she always did, before I had woken up. And then she never came back.

"The household guards found her body in the Eastern end of Rukongai, bloodied and muddied and slashed up almost to beyond recognition. That was when my father's decline in health started, and it hasn't stopped since. I went to view the body after it had been cleaned to pay my respects; not only do I regret doing that to this very day, but I will continue to regret it as long as I live."

"Why?"

"Because now when I close my eyes at night, all I can see is her bruised, disfigured face," Kuchiki hissed out, tears beginning to trickle unconsciously down his face. "The music is gone, and I know that's not what she would have wanted."

Kuukaku gave Byakuya time to gather himself together and calm down before she moved again, reaching into her robes and handing him a square of cloth to get rid of the tear-marks on his face. The prince took it wordlessly, but his thanks was visible in his eyes.

"You must think me weak," he said hollowly after a few moments of silence, "don't you?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Byakuya," the princess shot back. "Everyone has their burdens to bear, and that takes strength. But to come to terms with those burdens and understand _why_ you carry them is the first step to letting them go, and that requires a whole different kind of strength."

Kuchiki looked over at his companion curiously, surprised by her words.

"I never figured you to be the philosophizing type, Kuukaku."

"Oh, I didn't think that up myself; hell no," Shiba refuted sharply with a snort. "That was something my father used to tell Kaien and I every time we were down, back when we were kids. Back before I got this," she added for emphasis, gesturing to her wooden arm.

"But as much as I'd love to dive into that story," she continued after a sharp change in tone, "I think it's about time for us to head back, before Kaien starts thinking you took advantage of me or something absurd. And if he finds us _here_, of all places, looking like _this_, we'll still be hearing about it 300 years from now."

Byakuya saw yet another opening and did what he did best: turned it into a slightly juvenile, romantically-charged taunt.

"So," he said slyly, all traces of the vulnerable young man gone as he shifted back into his public Kuchiki persona, "you want this rapport to continue, Lady Shiba?"

Kuukaku realized her slip too late and snarled a curse to herself, but outwardly she immediately regained her poise and fired back.

"At least until next week, Kuchiki-san," she parried smoothly. "If you insist on remaining so insufferably smug, however, I may be forced to wipe that grin off of your face in an excruciatingly painful manner."

"I look forward to your attempt at doing so, Lady Shiba," Byakuya said with a molten voice as he rose and offered his hand to the still-sitting noblewoman. Kuukaku took it and got up, grateful for the support that allowed her to hide the slight trembling in her figure as a shiver shot down her spine at the implications of the Kuchiki prince's words. The pair disappeared in a flash, off to attempt a rescue of Byakuya's clothing from the Shiba mansion without running into the very protective older brother that was Kaien Shiba.

In the small grove of nearby trees, a figure clothed in black took in the scene though sharp blue eyes before vanishing with a whisper.

His mistress would be very, _very_ interesting in knowing what had unfolded here.

* * *

With the help of a network of trapdoors the ran throughout the Shiba residence, Byakuya had reclaimed his clothing, changed back into his formal garb and flash-stepped away without a trace. Well, except for the burning kiss he'd left Kuukaku with to remember him by, the prince thought as he lay in his bed attempting to go to sleep and failing again and again. It was as if sleep was Yoruichi Shihoin, and they were playing a game of _shunpo_ tag.

The mere thought of the golden-eyed, purple-haired and mischievous Captain drew a groan of dismay from Byakuya, and as his eyelids finally grew too heavy to keep open he drifted off to sleep with the sound of the demon-cat's cackling laughter echoing in his ears.

Tomorrow's lesson was going to be _hell_.

* * *

**A/N: **Well, there you have it, Chapter 2. Hope you enjoyed it, and let me know what you think! Things are about to get intense, and I hope to see you along for the ride!


	3. Yin and Yang

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach, or any of its characters. Tite Kubo does. This story, however, is mine.

**Maelstrom**

**Chapter 3: **Yin and Yang

* * *

"He WHAT!?" Mirata's outraged voice shrilled, her normally-composed expression now playing host to a storm of emotions that ranged from hatred to outrage to heartbreak to sheer incredulity.

"It is just as I said, my Lady," the nervous spy reported. "I saw Byakuya Kuchiki and Kuukaku Shiba enter a bar in Zaraki, and shortly afterwards a brawl took place therein. Following this they fled, emerging on a hillside, where they then proceeded to…"

"Don't!" the Zashigen princess shouted, before taking in several deep breaths to calm herself down. "Don't tell me _all_ of the details, you imbecile," she continued in a calm, icy voice, "just the ones that matter. How _could_ he? How could Byakuya Kuchiki turn me down so many times, and then resort to cheap trickery to weasel his way out of a betrothal overture, only to chase after that… that amputated hussy! What does Kuukaku Shiba possess that I lack? She's the one with one arm, damn it! How _dare_ he slight me like this, the bastard," she continued to rant, fuming. "I'm going to make him pay for this insult!"

"With all due respect, your highness," one of the older Zashigen advisors broke in, trying to calm the rampaging princess down before she did something truly moronic, "Byakuya Kuchiki is the sole heir to the Kuchiki Clan, and you have never officially made an overture of betrothal or drafted a contract to that effect. To oppose them openly now without any legitimate grounds for grievance would open the floodgates for an all-out war, and would surely spell the doom of our clan!"

"Relax, you old shriveling pile of wrinkles," Mirata snarled at the elder, who backed off with a resigned sigh. "I'm not going to attack that bastard openly, no," she clarified as her silver eyes narrowed to malicious slits,

"I'm going to hit him where it hurts; carve a wound in his heart that will never, ever heal. But now isn't the time, and so I am content to wait. But soon, very soon, the prince of the Kuchiki will wish he had never rejected me."

* * *

Byakuya stood in the middle of the spacious garden that formed the back of the Kuchiki estate, watching the sun rise towards its zenith and waiting for his sensei to show up and kill his good vibe. Some of the servants had been mildly unsettled by the wide smile on his face this morning, and so just to mess with them he had begun whistling merrily, inwardly cackling as several of them fainted outright or suffered mild nosebleeds from shock. Even Senbonzakura was surprised, but tacitly gave her approval of the match and said nothing beyond a self-satisfied chuckle Byakuya chose to ignore that practically bled 'I told you so.'

"Well, _someone's_ certainly chipper this morning, Byakuya-bo," the lilting voice of Yoruichi Shihoin called out as she shattered his tranquil thoughts with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. "Don't tell me you got lucky last night, you rogue you!"

"Shut up, Shihoin," Kuchiki growled, turning to face his grinning teacher. Or she would have been grinning, had she not been in her feline form at the moment.

"Sounds like someone's deflecting," Yoruichi purred slyly. "Hey," she called out suddenly, "look over there!"

Byakuya did so and saw nothing, turning back around and fixing his sensei with a glare…

Only to find himself staring at a stark naked, somewhat mist-cloaked and fully human Yoruichi Shihoin. Completely unmoved, the Kuchiki prince snorted disdainfully at the attempt prank and spoke.

"Put some damn clothes on, demon-cat," he said, "and let's just get this over with. I have somewhere I'd rather be right now."

Yoruichi stood shellshocked for a few moments before she blinked twice and summoned clothes out of thin air through _kido_.

Byakuya hadn't gotten embarrassed, or turned red, or had a nosebleed like he usually did when she pulled her favorite stunt on him. Hell, he hadn't even flinched!

"Oh," the Captain said slowly as understanding dawned on her and a huge grin reached from one ear to the other, "oh, this is just _too good_, Byakuya-bo. I never thought I'd live to see the day you fell this hard for someone!"

"What the hell are you babbling about, you crazy woman?" Kuchiki asked impatiently, praying to all of the Gods he knew and a few he'd made up as a kid to curse Yoruichi into silence right this instant. They seemed to prefer watching him suffer, though, and so Byakuya's fervent prayers went unanswered.

"You didn't react at all to my transformation this time, kid!" Shihoin explained. "Can't you see what that means?"

"That you're ugly?" he shot back, and Yoruichi cackled.

"It means someone else has wormed her way into your icy, tiny little heart, kiddo, and she's there to stay," the Captain said with suffocating superiority. "Are you going to thank me now, or wait until after you manage to go all the way with her?"

"I'm not thanking you for anything, Shihoin. Ever," The Kuchiki prince ground out while his hands clenched into tight fists. The Goddess of Flash chuckled again and vanished with a woosh, the signal that the lesson had begun. Byakuya was about to give chase when a messenger appeared out of nowhere, kneeling down in the grass.

"What is it?" the young noble asked, a feeling of vague, ominous fear gripping at his heart.

"It is your father, Byakuya-sama," the man reported gravely, just as Yoruichi reappeared nearby, a puzzled look on her face.

"He has fallen ill, and the elders believe he is nearing the end," the man finished announcing, vanishing immediately afterwards. Kuchiki disappeared as well, without so much as a glance backwards to the Second Division Captain. Yoruichi just hung her head and sighed, saddened that her student was soon going to be saddled with soul-crushing responsibilities right after finally catching a glimpse of actual happiness within the strangling, suppressive haze that was the nobility and all of its rules.

"For what it's worth, Byakuya," she said mournfully, "I am sorry."

* * *

Kuukaku was just waking up from the deepest sleep she'd had in a while when her brother of all people knocked on the door and entered, clearing his throat with a cough.

"That Kuchiki kid is here again, and wants to see you," he said dryly, clearly not enthused at the prospect. The princess shot up into a sitting position, thrown off-kilter by the sudden visitation.

"Tell him I'll be a few minutes, bro," she began, but Kaien shook his head.

"Just go as you are, sis," he insisted. "He looks like hell; I doubt he's going to mind you showing up in your pajamas. That, and if someone isn't with him I think our sake cabinet's gonna be emptied out in very short order. Just go."

Kuukaku hadn't seen her normally jovial brother this grim in a long time, and promptly obeyed him by disappearing in a flash while honing in on the turbulent reiatsu she knew to belong to the Kuchiki Clan's prince. When she saw him sitting there, halfway to glassy-eyed and clutching a bottle of sake just like her brother had predicted, something in her chest clenched. The princess stepped swiftly over to Byakuya, all but ripping the bottle from his grip and frowning darkly.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" she asked, hoping that the sharp tone of her voice would cover up her genuine concern. "It's only 10 in the morning! You should wait at least two more hours before you start drinking, and if you were going to go for our best bottle the least you could have done was let me know first, you selfish bastard."

The prince chuckled lamely at the attempted humor, sighing and waiting a few heartbeats before he spoke.

"My father is dying, Kuukaku," he said gravely. "The doctors believe he will not be long for this world, and once he is gone I will be head of my Clan."

The Shiba princess was silent for several moments before she spoke, her voice low.

"My condolences, Byakuya," she said, and Kuchiki looked at her oddly.

"I half-expected you to congratulate me on my soon-to-be-coronation, and the power I will wield," he replied, his voice thick with disdain for the title he was shortly going to be asked to adopt. "Once again you surprise me, Kuukaku."

"Are you joking?" she shot back, taking a reflexive swig from the bottle in her hands. "I'd never wish the shit my brother deals with on anyone, least of all you. I almost never see him smile underneath this roof, and any job that can drain someone like Kaien of his spunk is one that should be reserved for the most atrocious, scum-sucking bastards in Soul Society."

"But then your Clan would fall into ruin," Byakuya commented, "and we could never get married if you became a mere commoner."

"That's true… wait, what the hell did you just say!?" the princess shouted, shocked by the drunken temerity of this Kuchiki punk. But the prince just gave her a slightly confused look, a single eyebrow arched.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "All I said was that your Clan would fall into ruin if someone of lesser caliber than your brother was its Head."

Kuukaku just stared at the noble next to her in dumb incomprehension; how could he have blacked out while saying something that audacious? Determined to shove it out of her mind, she just took another swig from the sake bottle and was about to haul Byakuya to his feet when he reached out preemptively and stopped her. The prince gripped her wrist with surprising strength, given his inebriation and the slender shape of his fingers.

"I can't go back there, Kuukaku," he said, an undercurrent of a plea coursing through his urgent words. "If I do, everyone will expect me to stand vigil by my father as he wastes away, and I'm not going to make the same mistake twice; I can't."

The Shiba princess' sharp eyes softened as she understood the full meaning of what Byakuya was saying, and she sighed.

"Kaien's being sent out on an expedition by his Captain starting tomorrow," she said, "so he can get away from all of this aristocratic bullshit for a while. The elders have agreed to take over as a council while he's gone, so his room will be free. If you wanna stay there for the time being until this all blows over," she finished with a sigh, knowing she was digging her own grave by acquiescing, "you'd be more than welcome. But as soon as your coronation date is set, kid," she warned with an edged tone, "either you're gonna buck up and do what you have to do or I'll drag you all the way to your throne myself!"

"I wouldn't expect anything less, Lady Shiba," Byakuya said with a faint smile as he got up slightly shakily, walking towards the room's exit. Right before Kuchiki crossed the threshold, however, he turned around and looked back over his shoulder, the alcohol gone completely from his gaze.

"Thank you, Kuukaku," he said sincerely, vanishing with a whisper as the princess merely sat there in shock, trying to come to grips with what had just happened over the past few minutes. Giving up as her brain started to hurt, she simply took another swig to kill the bottle, got up, flashed back to her room and collapsed onto her bed with a sigh before sinking back into sleep.

* * *

The descent of Byakuya's father into the waiting, gentle embrace of death lasted a mere week. During that week, though, as ashamed as it made him to admit it, the prince felt the happiest he had been since before his grandfather had passed away. There were no fawning retainers, no cloying noblewomen trying to preen their way into his pockets and no overbearing atmosphere of gloom. Something, however, still felt off to Byakuya, and it had to do with Kuukaku Shiba.

Her brother Ganju had been perfectly hospitable throughout the week, whether out of genuine friendliness or out of terror that his sister would skewer him otherwise, but Kuukaku herself had been like a ghost. It was all but impossible to track her down, and any rare moment of interaction he'd managed to wring from her had been frigid at best. Finally, at dawn of the day he was scheduled to show up for his coronation as the new Kuchiki Clan Head, Byakuya was fed up and decided to see just how determined Kuukaku was to keep her promises. Waiting, waiting and then waiting some more, the prince was beginning to reach a level of aggravated normally associated with Yoruichi's visits when the Shiba princess finally made her grand entrance.

"Getting cold feet?" her voice taunted from behind him, and he didn't even turn to face her as he smiled.

"Not exactly," he parried, "but they were getting numb waiting for you to show up. What the hell's bothering you, Kuukaku?"

"What do you mean, Byakuya?" she half-hissed back, hoping the venom in her voice would be enough of a warning sign to convince him to shut up and walk away. But, as Kuukaku should have known by now, the Kuchiki prince didn't really heed warning signs.

"I mean you've been avoiding me for a solid week, you crazy woman!" he shouted, unable to hold himself back any longer. "Talk about mixed signals; I haven't met anyone as schizophrenic as you since the new Twelfth Division Captain Yoruichi shacks up with. First you invite me in with open arms, and then you agree to sit in on those agonizingly boring council meetings just to avoid me? Make up your damn mind already!"

"Why don't you shut the fuck up and start practicing what you preach, you dickhead?" Kuukaku snapped back viciously as soon as she had the opening. "First you act all detached and uninterested, then you start a barfight—"

"That was completely your fault!"

"Shut up!" Shiba growled, punching Byakuya hard across the face as her roiling emotions found an exit and compelled her fist into action. "That was one-hundred percent your fault, you moron. And then you act all vulnerable and open right after kissing my brains out, only to show up here a day later in a drunken stupor and all but _propose_ to me, and you call _me_ crazy!? If anyone here needs to make up their mind, it's you!"

As Byakuya reeled from the vicious sucker-punch that he was almost certain had left him with a shiner on his eye, his mind raced to catch up to everything Kuukaku had just hurled at him. So he had been vulnerable; true. He had kissed her brains out; oh, had he ever. He had shown up in a drunken stupor; well, that was debatable, because he'd only gotten hammered _after_ he'd broken into the Shiba's ludicrously well-stocked sake cabinet. He had pro—propo—proposed?

Oh gods. Oh, tell him he had not been so incredibly stupid as to do something like that.

'Yes, you were that stupid,' Senbonzakura chimed in at the worst possible time, 'and yes, you did do that. It was actually rather funny to watch, in a sad kind of way…'

Completely ignoring his zanpakuto spirit, Byakuya turned all of his swiftly-fading lucidity towards the task of figuring out just what the hell he had done.

"I proposed to you?" he asked dumbly, and Kuukaku stared at him with a mix of emotions on her face he couldn't quite decipher. There was disbelief and anger, to be sure, but also a tinge of… was that sadness? Disappointment? What the hell was _wrong_ with this woman, and why didn't he care at all?

"Well, not exactly," the princess amended in a slightly hesitant tone, "but you said that we 'couldn't get married if my clan fell into ruin and I became a mere commoner'."

By now Kuchiki had fully regained his mental balance; the vulnerable young man was told to go sit in the corner and twiddle his thumbs while the cocky, confident and utterly unstoppable prince came out to play with full force. She had put herself right where Byakuya wanted her, and there was no way Kuukaku was escaping him now.

"Well, that is true," he said slowly and deliberately as he began to walk towards her in the same fashion. "Don't you think that would be a shame, Kuukaku?" he asked with serpentine smoothness. "Because I certainly do."

The Shiba princess' heart began to accelerate suddenly, and she shifted back a step out of reflex.

"Byakuya," she began with a slight nervousness that only made Kuchiki's eyes gleam brighter, "what are you talking about?"

Vanishing in a flash, the prince was suddenly very glad that Yoruichi had drilled him so hard in the art of _shunpo_; he was behind her in the blink of an eye, snaking an arm around her abdomen to hold her in place while his head leaned down and his mouth hovered just millimeters away from her ear.

"I think it would be a shame if I couldn't spend years and years getting to know this better," he said heatedly as his hand moved slowly but surely up her body, drawing a strangled gasp from his prey, "but I think the biggest shame of all would be letting you slip away without ever discovering what you have locked away in here," he finished in a softer tone, placing his hand gently over her heart.

Kuukaku was almost shaking from the onslaught of emotions assaulting her from every angle, and could barely follow Byakuya's next words as she struggled mightily to retain some shred of control over her body.

"You are honestly unlike anyone else I've ever met, Kuukaku," he said softly, rolling her name around on his tongue briefly for added impact and seeing the dividends as her breath caught sharply once again.

"You infuriate me and captivate me," he continued, beginning to place gentle, almost insubstantial kisses on her neck and collarbone between phrases. "You intoxicate me and poison me, and make me feel like everything else is dull and worthless when placed next to the fire that burns so fiercely within you. I do not care if it will turn me to ashes, Kuukaku," he finished as he flashed in front of her and placed a hand gently underneath her chin, "I desire to draw warmth from nothing else. If you will but allow me that—"

Just as Byakuya was about to segue into his undeniably powerful, irresistibly persuasive grand finale, he found himself slammed up against the nearest wall and suddenly unable to breath from his mouth. Kuukaku had finally snapped completely and was kissing him with a passion much more concentrated and powerful than what the prince had experienced before on the hill, and it was all he could do to keep from drowning in its power.

'Thank the Gods,' Kuchiki heard Senbonzakura sigh with relief from somewhere in the corner of his soul. 'I thought you were _never_ going to shut up.'

Fighting back as gamely as he could considering how completely he was being dominated at the moment, Byakuya at least managed to regain his concentration for long enough to flash them both away from the front entrance and into Kaien's room before Kuukaku rallied once again and physically threw the prince onto the nearby bed. This done, she leapt after him and pinned him down beneath her, grinning.

"Where do you think you're going, Byakuya?" she purred, drawing out his name the same way that he had done to her earlier and provoking a similar reaction in her captive. Making sure his arms weren't going anywhere, Kuukaku started to prove just how much of a bitch payback could be.

"I have you now, Kuchiki," she said in a predatory tone between kisses and teasing brushes of her teeth over bare skin, "and I'm not letting you go until you know what it feels like to be strung out as badly as I just was."

Five solid minutes later Byakuya was beyond the point of forming a coherent word, and Kuukaku was all but playing him like an instrument. Just as she brought him right up to the edge of release, however, she stopped and looked down at him with a positively evil gleam in her eyes.

"Oh, that's right," she said with feigned ignorance, "don't you have somewhere else to be? I guess I should be going, then; I wouldn't want to interfere with Kuchiki Clan politics…"

Before Kuukaku had even finished her taunt, her world spun around sharply for a brief, jarring moment and she suddenly found herself staring up into a pair of positively blazing violet-gray eyes.

"Those old bastards can wait," Byakuya said in a deep growl that sounded almost feral. "Right now, all you should be concerned about is how I'm going to make you pay for that torture you just put me through, Kuukaku."

"You want recompense, Kuchiki-_sama_?" the princess asked, putting particular emphasis on the title and looking up at Byakuya with a steely, molten and defiant stare,

"Then come and take it from me."

The prince was never one to refuse a challenge, and lunged forward powerfully as the outside world evaporated for both of them.

* * *

"What's taking him so long?"

"This lack of respect is appalling!"

"First he refuses to see his father on his deathbed, and now this?"

"Are we really going to give sovereignty over this Clan to a brash youth like Byakuya?"

"Where's Kurimota? I thought he was going to be here…"

"Who cares? That old windbag's been a waste of space for ages, anyway…"

Amidst all of the outraged murmuring that carried on while Byakuya continued to make the elders wait for his entrance, only Yoruichi Shihoin was smiling. She knew exactly what had happened, and couldn't _wait_ to rub it in both of those stubborn kids' faces for the next few centuries.

"I apologize for my tardiness," a voice suddenly called out from the doors that marked the entrance to the great hall as Byakuya stepped into the room with the grace and power of true nobility. "I was… otherwise occupied," he explained tactfully, catching Yoruichi's knowing eye and flashing her the barest shadow of a frown while the Captain grinned like an idiot on a sugar high.

"I hope whatever you made us wait so long for was worth it, Byakuya," one of the old men half-barked out, and the prince regarded him with an icy stare that made the speaker quail instantly.

"Yes," he said simply, "it was. Now, shall we get this ceremony underway? I imagine that my father's illness left many affairs unattended, and I wish to rectify that as soon as I am able."

The commanding tone of voice brought small tears of pride to the corner of Yoruichi's eyes as she saw the metamorphosis occurring in front of her eyes: Byakuya Kuchiki the prince was becoming Byakuya Kuchiki the noble. The boy was, at long last, becoming a man. As the ceremony drew to a close, she lingered behind with the new Head of the Kuchiki Clan while the elders took their leave.

"What do you want, Lady Shihoin?" he asked, his eyes not even leaving the paper he was signing and sealing.

"Oh, nothing major," she began, nonchalant as always. "I just want to know one thing, Byakuya-bo."

"Then speak," Kuchiki said impatiently, "and please do refrain from calling me that. Those days are behind me now."

Yoruichi just smirked, knowing that old habit would never die. As soon as she saw his pen hovering over the top of a new page, she struck.

"So, how was Kuukaku? You come away with any other bruises, 'sides that shiner fading on your eye?"

Just as she had predicted, the pen jerked forward and tore a scar straight down through the center of the page, almost splitting it in two. Not wanting to stick around long enough to catch the brunt of Byakuya's wrath, Yoruichi vanished with a cackle that was still bouncing around the great hall long after the Captain was gone.

"Damn that woman," Kuchiki growled, even as a smile spread across his face and the fingers of his free hand toyed with a golden ring resting in a pocket within his robes.

* * *

"Did you find him?" the voice rang out harshly through the darkened room.

"Yes, your ladyship."

"Show me the proof."

The dark blindfold was lifted from the kneeling man's face at the same time a torch was set alight in the pitch-black room, the resulting shock causing the old man to wince sharply and cower in fright.

"Jurimota Kurimoto," the harsh voice from earlier spoke, "do you know where you are?"

"No," the terrified man spoke back in a quivering voice. "Please, I have to—"

"Silence!" the feminine voice shrilled out. "You will not say anything beyond what is required of you to answer a question. Jurimota Kurimoto, you are currently in the dungeon of the Zashigen Mansion. My name is Mirata Zashigen. Do you know what that means, elder of the Kuchiki?"

"No."

"It means that, within these walls, I am the ultimate authority. I could strike off your head, and no one would raise a hand to stop me. I could order the deaths of your wife and two sons currently being held in the next room over, and no one would hesitate to obey me."

Kurimoto's eyes widened in shocked, before narrowing in hatred as he was empowered by the fearlessness that enters someone facing what they know are their final moments of life.

"You're bluffing."

Mirata's silver eyes gleamed hatefully in the dim light.

"Am I? She challenged. "Your wife's name is Amara, your eldest son is called Shoju and your youngest is…

"Enough!" the elder shouted as despair reclaimed him, "enough. What do you want from me so badly that you have refrained from killing me, and taken my family hostage?"

"Right down to business," the Zashigen princess hissed. "I like your style, Jurimota. Very well; onto the reason why you are here. You are here because you are trusted by the Kuchiki household, and have almost completely unrestricted access to it. I need you to do me a favor, elder," she continued as a subordinate wearing a cowl to cover their face stepped forward and handed him a knife.

"I require that you take this knife and stab it into the new Kuchiki Clan Head's fiancée," Mirata finished, and Kurimoto's expression became profoundly confused.

"Fiancée?" he repeated slowly. "What are you talking about? Kuchiki-sama has never shown interest in any woman that I know of."

"Indeed," the Zashigen princess said icily, "he hasn't. Until now, that is. Now that he has been officially declared Head, it will not be long before he publicly announces his intentions to engage, and then wed, that shameless whore Kuukaku Shiba. That is whom you must wound with this poisoned knife I have just bestowed upon you, if you desire to ever see your family alive again. Is that in any way unclear, elder of the Kuchiki?"

"No," Kurimoto said heavily as shame and regret squeezed his heart while his hand squeezed the grip of the knife, "it isn't."

* * *

**A/N: **And so the plot heats up! Mirata begins to put her dastardly plan into motion, and it looks like dark times are on the horizon. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and let me know what you thought! Also, since I see no point in making you guys and gals wait an inordinate amount of time for an update when the story has already been written and edited, expect daily updates from here on out. Huzzah!


	4. Nadir

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach; Tite Kubo does. This story, however, is mine.

**Maelstrom**

**Chapter 4: **Nadir

* * *

True to Mirata's prediction, a few days after his ascension to the throne of his Clan Byakuya had announced his engagement to Kuukaku of the Shiba. This came to the shock of everyone save a certain demon-cat, including the older brother of the bride-to-be. As soon as he heard the news, Kaien became consumed with such a powerful desire to eviscerate Byakuya that he set a Gotei record for the largest number of Hollow purifications on a single mission just so he could race back to the Kuchiki Manor without being charged with desertion by his Captain, Jushiro Ukitake. When he arrived, full of sound and fury, Kaien found himself faced with the one thing that had always given him pause.

It was his sister, and she was pissed. Even worse, she was that tightly-controlled kind of wrathful that the Head of the Shiba clan knew all too well, the kind that had broken several of his bones in years past.

"Hello, Kaien," she said with deadly seriousness. "What brings you here, sword drawn and thoughts bloody?"

"Step aside, sis," her brother ground out, looking past Kuukaku to lock eyes with an intolerably smug-looking Byakuya. Kaien's sister, however, had other ideas.

"No," she said fiercely, grabbing her sibling's shoulder and forcing him to look her in the eye again. "Your chest-thumping contests never solve anything, and I'm not going to let your pointless anger screw this up."

"Pointless?" Kaien breathed out, disbelief dominating his expression now rather than anger. "You're calling this pointless? This is a defense of your honor, Kuukaku!"

"Oh, really?" she shot back, eyes smoldering. "It's my honor you're concerned about, and not your own pride? Tell me, how has my honor been shamed? What slight has Byakuya committed against me that you feel so determined to repay him for?"

"He… he…" Kaien began, but found his argument losing force as he realized this had been a completely mutual decision between his kid sister and this… punk.

"You really sure this is what you want, Kuukaku?" he asked softly, and his sibling smiled in appreciation and relief.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah, it is."

Kaien sighed and nodded, sheathing his sword and smiling bittersweetly, like a father who just realized the girl they'd always seen as a kid had finally grown into a woman, ready to face the world and all of its challenges without him.

"In that case, you have my blessing. Gods know you never listen to me anyway, so even if I said 'No' that wouldn't stop you, would it?" he finished, a teasing, fraternal smile crossing his face.

"No," Kuuaku replied with equal edge and a twin smile, "probably not."

The pair shared a laugh for a moment or two, before Kaien fixed his soon-to-be brother-in-law with a stone-cold stare as Byakuya flashed over to join them.

"Oi, Kuchiki!"

"Yes?"

"You break her heart, and I'll be eating yours for dinner!"

"I'll keep that in mind," Byakuya said drolly as he extended his hand in a gesture of friendship, which Kaien took a heartbeat later as his sister looked on and grinned.

* * *

Kochi hadn't seen his former pupil so happy in decades. Perhaps that was why he was blinded by optimism and failed to see the warning signs that had been gathering over the past weeks, all pointing to a disaster looming heavy on the horizon. Kurimoto had been acting oddly for some time, but that didn't strike Kochi as strange by any stretch of the imagination; he had always been a bit of a bizarre figure.

Byakuya-sama was away on some kind of boring diplomatic mission or another, and Kuukaku had decided to stop by the Kuchiki Manor to acquaint herself with the people who lived there when it happened.

It began as most of these sort of things do, inconspicuously. Jurimota walked up to greet the soon-to-be Lady Kuchiki, making sure he was in as much of a blindspot as he could be. The knife was drawn, made its fatal wound and was sheathed just as quickly, after which Kurimoto began to speed-walk towards the exit of the hall. Unfortunately for the treacherous elder, the wound was not enough to send Kuukaku into shock immediately. He soon found himself both immobile and in a great amount of pain as a _shakkaho_ slammed into his back right before the Shiba princess lost consciousness, hitting the floor with a dull thud. Attendants were at her side immediately, and guards were ordered to haul Jurimota away for detainment and eventual further questioning at once. As Kuukaku lay on the ground in a rapidly-expanding pool of her own blood, she saw the faces of the two men she cared about most in her life smiling down at her, silently telling her everything was going to be all right.

She only hoped she could believe them.

* * *

The news hit Byakuya like a barrage of three simultaneous lightning bolts, and his heart skipped a good five beats. As soon as he regained his composure the noble flashed away so quickly he left a scorch mark deep in the ground he had been standing on only seconds earlier, praying that he wasn't already too late.

When he returned to the Manor, Kaien was already standing by Kuukaku's bedside, along with Captain Retsu Unohana. Kuchiki thought the Head of the Shiba Clan would be furious with him for not protecting his sister, but instead Kaien walked over and embraced him strongly, breaking apart a few moments later.

"I'm glad you're here, brother," he said solemnly, the dark circles under his now-dull green eyes lending even more gravity to his words. "It's you she really needs right now, even more than me."

"You… you're not…?" Byakuya began to ask, but Shiba cut him off with a look.

"Why should I be?" he parried seriously. "None of us saw this coming, Byakuya. If I lost my head now and fought you to the death or whatever, I guarantee you that whoever the sick fuck is who's behind this would be laughing a lot harder than they are right now."

Byakuya's violet-gray eyes narrowed dangerously.

"This was premeditated?" he said slowly, rage beginning to coil in his gut like a terrible serpent and ready to strike out at whoever had dared attack Kuukaku. Kaien nodded.

"There's a guy your men apprehended fleeing the scene locked down in your dungeon, but he hasn't said a peep beyond confirming that someone coerced him into doing this."

The Kuchiki leader nodded distractedly and made his way slowly over to his fiancée's bedside, looking down at the crimson-stained bandages that wrapped around her abdomen and feeling grief reach up to swallow him whole. Just as he was about to give in, though, the warmest and most comforting voice he had heard in ages broke through his despair and lifted him back into the light.

"The worst is over, Kuchiki-san," Unohana said encouragingly. "I managed to stop the bleeding, and the wound itself was not that severe, nor deep. All that remains now is to discover what sort of poison the blade was dipped in, and find the antidote."

"Poison?" Byakuya repeated. As if on some perverse cue, Kuukaku moaned in pain and began to convulse while sweat beaded on her forehead.

"She's going into anaphylactic shock," Unohana said at once, and Byakuya backed off to give her space. "Her body must have tried to fight off the poison on its own, and now everything's accelerating instead…" she mumbled half to herself, beginning a series of _kido_ spells. After a few tense moments Kuukaku was still once again, but to the consternation of everyone present a small trickle of black, tar-colored liquid seeped out from the corner of her mouth. Unohana caught some of it on the tip of a thin stick and held it close to her nose, sniffing once and immediately recoiling as the look on her face became much darker than normal.

"Nightshade," she said after a long moment. "There's no mistaking it."

"Can you pinpoint the strain?" Kaien asked, and Byakuya was right alongside his train of thought.

"If we can find out the exact strain and figure out where it grows, then—" Kuchiki continued,

"We can find the bastards that did this and crucify them," Kaien finished, his normally kind green eyes bright with lust for vengeance.

"There are hundreds of strains of the plant," Unohana broke back in, ever the voice of reason amongst chaos, "but I will run the appropriate tests, and see what I can do. In the meantime, I will be back every two hours on the hour to check on your sister, Shiba-san."

"Thank you very much, Captain Unohana," Kaien said with a bow, and Retsu smiled kindly.

"You never have to thank me, Shiba-san," she said calmly before vanishing in a flash of _shunpo_, leaving the concerned men alone for a few brief moments before they were visited by a decidedly less-welcome visitor.

"Shiba-sama," the messenger wearing the garb of Kaien's clan said gravely, "the elders are in an uproar, and demand you make a swift decision regarding the fate of Byakuya Kuchiki-sama."

"What?" Kaien asked, confused and more than a little angry. "What do you mean, 'a swift decision'?"

"The elders believe that the fault in this case lies with Byakuya Kuchiki-sama, as the wound dealt to Kuukaku Shiba-sama was delivered on his grounds. Furthermore, Kuukaku Shiba-sama is still not married to Byakuya Kuchiki-sama, and as such she is still a full-fledged member of our house. The elders of your clan believe that this constitutes a crime against our house perpetrated by the Kuchiki, however indirect it might be, and they demand reprisal in blood."

"What if I tell you to go tell the elders to fuck themselves? I'm the Clan Head, not them!" Kaien snarled back. The messenger, far from being perturbed by the outburst, had expected something like it and had a reply prepared for this very eventuality.

"The elders are ready to move for a vote of no confidence if you refuse to act decisively in this matter, Shiba-sama," he replied, before vanishing. Kaien and Byakuya stood in silence once more for several moments, each coming to the same conclusion.

"Take me prisoner," Kuchiki said evenly. "It's the only way to appease those vultures and buy you enough time to sort this out."

Kaien nodded, realizing it was for the best even if the thought made him sick to his stomach.

"If they push for an execution date, I'll make sure to give Unohana plenty of time to figure out whoever was behind this," he swore. "I promise we'll find those bastards, Kuchiki."

Byakuya nodded calmly, removing his zanpakuto from its resting place by his hip and holding it out horizontally in both hands, palms up, like a prisoner of war.

"Shall we go feed the jackals their meat, brother?"

Kaien took the offered weapon with all due reverence, catching a twang of disdain from Senbonzakura as she rested in his hands and offering an apology to the affronted spirit.

* * *

And so Byakuya Kuchiki, ruler of the Clan of the same name and a powerful warrior in his own right, found himself sitting in a cell as a captive. It was a spacious cell, at least, that Kaien had procured for him by pulling a few strings, but it was still a cell. Resting his head and hands and sighing, he was halfway to self-pity when a sharp voice lashed him seemingly out of nowhere.

"What are you doing, Byakuya?"

Looking up, Kuchiki found himself staring at none other than Senbonzakura, materialized in all of her deadly glory.

"What are _you_ doing, Senbonzakura?" he asked wearily, not wanting to spar with his own damn sword at the moment. "I thought I surrendered you to Kaien."

"You did," the spirit parried coldly as Byakuya flinched at the unspoken accusation. "But you should know that a zanpakuto is not just the physical form of the sword it adopts in the tangible world. That form is the reflection of a part of your soul: as long as you draw breath, Byakuya, I will be with you."

"To what end?" Kuchiki snapped back harder than he had intended, sighing regretfully. "I'm still a captive, Kuukaku is still dying, those scum that hurt her are still out there and there's nothing I can do about any of that."

"That is where you are wrong, child," the ethereal woman said calmly and comfortingly. "You cannot see your enemies; this much is true. But that does not mean you cannot prepare yourself for the moment you face them on the field of battle." Extending a hand, Senbonzakura's brilliant, shifting pink eyes narrowed slightly in determination as she spoke.

"Take my hand, Byakuya," the zanpakuto spirit encouraged, "and I will show you the way to gain power enough to crush your enemies one-hundred times over."

Understanding dawned in the Kuchiki noble's eyes, and with it came the fire of willpower that had been sorely lacking since the attempt on Kuukaku's life.

"_Bankai_," he said seriously, and as Senbonzakura nodded a chill wind seemed to sweep over Byakuya, but he stayed firm and extended his own hand. As they joined, Senbonzakura disappeared and pulled the rest of her partner's soul deep into their Spirit World.

Byakuya opened his eyes slowly, waiting for the world around him to come into focus before he did anything. It was his usual Spirit World, and yet his zanpakuto's power was omnipresent to the point of being suffocating. Shimmering, tiny blades that seemed pink in the light covered the sky, creating clouds of their own that shifted and morphed constantly in a perfect representation of the controlled chaos that was the heart of Senbonzakura.

"Beautiful, is it not, Byakuya?" A calm voice called out to him, and Kuchiki turned to behold his zanpakuto spirit standing before him once again. This time, however, she was wearing a long-sleeved version of the Kuchiki war haori that Byakuya himself had donned during his first meeting with Kuukaku.

"This power can be yours, child," she continued, holding out one hand that was grasping nothing but a sword hilt and willing the petals around her to converge, forming a steel blade with a grinding hiss. "The power to save those you love, whom you desire to protect above all others.

"But if you desire this power you must take it from me, and be prepared to lose your life if you fail. Only by truly desiring my strength with every fiber of your being will you be able to wrest it from me; only then will I truly call you master. Are you ready, Byakuya?"

"Why, Senbonzakura," the Kuchiki noble replied with cocky ease as he willed a blade of his own into existence and readied it for the duel, tacitly passing the first test, "I thought you'd never ask."

The zanpakuto spirit and her partner shared one last smirk before their faces and souls became as iron, charging each other with full intent to kill and all but splitting the world around them in half with the force of their impact.

* * *

It had been three days since the imprisonment of Byakuya Kuchiki, and Kaien Shiba was sitting wordlessly by his sister's bedside clutching her hand in his when he was greeted by the most unexpected of visitors.

"Good day to you, Shiba-san," the blond-haired Captain of Twelfth Division said with a restrained version of his usual cheer, and Kaien sprang up to salute him.

"Captain Urahara, sir," he said hastily, "this is quite a surprise! What are you doing here?"

"Please, call me Kisuke, Shiba-san," the Captain said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "We can let the ranks of the Gotei lay down their burdens for a bit while we are underneath your roof, don't you think so?"

Kaien nodded courteously, but his expression was still a mixture of confusion and anxiety. Before he could speak, however, Urahara cut him off.

"You are wondering what I am doing here, no doubt," he began, "and so I will explain the situation to you. I was working with Captain Unohana on analyzing the nightshade poison currently afflicting your sister, for expediency's sake, when I noticed something quite peculiar. Captain Unohana looked over my findings and sent me here to relay them to you, to avoid a… conflict of interest, you might say."

"In what sense?" Shiba demanded, on pins and needles waiting for Kisuke to get to the point.

"Well, it's quite simple, actually," Urahara continued, his voice becoming suddenly conspiratorial. "You see, Captain Unohana prides herself on causing no violence whatsoever unless it is absolutely necessary to preserve the safety of Soul Society.

"So, if she were to come here and tell you that there is a very good chance the nightshade we found is of a species that grows solely near the grounds of the Zashigen Mansion, and the likelihood is very high that they were the ones behind the attack on your sibling, well," Kisuke finished with an enigmatic, almost dangerous smile, "you can see how that would be a conflict of interest, Shiba-san."

Kaien's green eyes blazed with life once again for the first time in days, his mouth setting into a thin, determined line.

"Do you have an antidote for the poison?" he pressed, and Urhara shook his head negatively.

"Unfortunately, the antidote for this poison requires yet another rare ingredient, one which the Zashigen nobles have been hoarding for quite some time under the guise of using it to assist in their crafting of silver. The only way to procure said substance would be to either ask them for it very nicely, or…"

"Or rip it from their cold, dead fingers," Kaien finished for him, and Kisuke nodded.

"Quite so. Best of luck to you, Shiba-san," the Captain said as he walked away. "And if Captain Unohana asks…"

"We never had this conversation."

Kisuke gave one last smirk and vanished in a flash of _shunpo_, leaving the Shiba leader alone with Kuukaku and the first spark of hope he'd had in what felt like years. Looking down kindly at his sister, who was balanced on the border between dream and sleep, he ran a hand tenderly through her long black hair and spoke.

"Everything's going to be all right, sis," he whispered softly. "You're going to be fine, I promise."

Leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on Kuukaku's forehead, Kaien left in a flash to go fetch Senbonzakura from his private quarters, the place he had stowed the powerful blade to keep it safe from his own elders.

Then he was going to visit a certain captive Kuchiki, and they were going to raise some long-overdue hell.

* * *

It could have been minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or even years at this point. Time held no sway in the Spirit World; there was only the sword in his hands, the sword of his opponent, and the drive to conquer any obstacle in front of him. That was all that mattered, all that existed.

Apart from the thoughts of the woman for whose sake he was pushing himself to these limits, that is. He was torn, bleeding, exhausted and slashed half to death, and Byakuya was certain that the only thing keeping him upright at this point was the image of that wickedly smiling face, that grin he wanted to see so many more times before he died. The one he felt it was his personal responsibility to resurrect, no matter what the cost. But just as he rallied himself for one last assault, Senbonzakura lowered her sword. Then she spoke, looking at him with serious, but not unkind eyes.

"If you attack me now," she said, "you will die. Are you aware of this, Byakuya?"

"Excruciatingly so."

"And yet you are still willing to strike?"

Steely violet-gray eyes flashed in defiance.

"Yes."

"Then you possess the resolve to push yourself to your absolute limits, and the faith to trust that your soul will carry you safely beyond those limits and to victory in battle?"

"I do."

Senbonzakura's expression changed radically, her eyes softening completely as a smile spread across her face and she knelt on the ground before him.

"Then you have shown me that you are willing to truly believe in my strength, as I now believe in yours, Byakuya. You are worthy to wield the strength of my _bankai_, and I will now give it to you freely, if you shall have it."

Byakuya reached out reverently and placed his hand on top of Senbonzakura's flowing black hair, feeling a lurch in his chest as the world around him began to dissolve and fade away.

"And just in time, too," the zanpakuto's voice called out as it became fainter and fainter. "It looks like someone is here to see you, Byakuya."

* * *

The captive Kuchiki opened his eyes to see Kaien standing in front of him, holding a sword that Byakuya recognized as Senbonzakura while an odd look graced his expression.

"You all right, brother?" he asked concernedly. "You look like hell."

"I'm fine," Byakuya assured him, stretching out his severely cramped neck with a sigh. "Why are you here, Kaien? Is it time for me to put my life under the executioner's blade?"

"No, actually, it isn't," Shiba parried. "I've come to learn some very interesting information just now, and I thought you'd like to know about it."

Kuchiki arched a curious eyebrow at that.

"Enlighten me."

Kaien told Byakuya about the situation, after which Byakuya felt compelled to tell Kaien about the incident that had started this whole chain of events: his scorning of Mirata Zashigen. Rather than be angry, however, Shiba once again upended Kuchiki's expectations and looked impressed.

"Wow, that's all you did? Really? Spike her drink? I'm stunned at your level of restraint, Kuchiki, really; I probably would have committed seppuku to get out of meeting with that crazy bitch again."

Byakuya allowed himself an infinitesimal smirk, but a heartbeat later both men were completely stoic once again.

"I need to ask you a question before I give you this back, Kuchiki," Kaien spoke as he held out Senbonzakura. "Are you in this until the end, or not?"

"Are you?" Byakuya shot back with a hint of slyness, and the Shiba leader cracked a vicious smile as he tossed Kuchiki his sword. The blade became enveloped in a flaming pink wreath of reiatsu as the master truly accepted his servant for the first time, and Kaien chuckled.

"Does _everything_ you touch turn pink, brother?"

Byakuya shot his comrade a thoroughly dirty look but said nothing, and the pair vanished in twin flashes of _shunpo_ a moment later.

* * *

**A/N: **And so all of the pieces finally move into place, while Kaien and Byakuya prepare ride out and wreak some righteous vengeance for Kuukaku's attempted assassination. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and let me know what you think! We're nearing the end of the story... just one more main chapter to go, and then an epilogue!


	5. Endings and Beginnings

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach, or its characters; Tite Kubo does. This story, however, is mine.

**Maelstrom**

**Chapter 5: **Endings and Beginnings

* * *

"Took them long enough," Mirata said as she sat on the throne of the Zashigen family, arms crossed and looking particularly impatient. "Is everything ready?"

"Yes, my Lady," one of her soldiers replied instantly. "We have dispatched the assassins as you ordered us to, and the Hollow Bait has been procured as per your instructions."

"Excellent," she said crisply, clutching her forehead for a moment as twin tsunami of reiatsu raged off in the distance. "Send reinforcements, you fools!" she barked. "Put them in the ground!"

"Of course, my Lady," another soldier spoke up, vanishing at once.

* * *

"Man, don't they have anything stronger than this?" Kaien whined as Nejibana whirled and slashed through what felt like the fortieth peon, crushing another six with the waves emanating from his unsealed zanpakuto. "I'm barely even breaking a sweat over here!"

"Take that as the blessing it is, Shiba," Byakuya ground out evenly as the pink wave of his own _shikai_ eviscerated six soldiers at once, "and let's get moving. We're here for the antidote, not to turn this place into a killing field. That comes second."

"Spoilsport," Kaien grumbled as another pack of faceless goons was pulverized into a fine, bloody mist before the duo raced onwards, zeroing in on the throne room like harbingers of the apocalypse. When they finally arrived at their destination the pair was stained with the blood and gore of the fallen, standing tall and deadly like demons. Particularly bloodthirsty, infuriated demons.

"Tell us where the antidote is, Mirata," Byakuya said with an icy voice that made every sane person in the room shiver, "and this ends. We do not desire to spill any more blood that is necessary."

"Then I hope you are prepared to take one more life, Kuchiki," Zashigen spat with the fire of the insane behind her words, "because I am not going to surrender the antidote short of you taking it from my corpse."

"So be it," Byakuya said evenly, raising his sword parallel with his body and turning the blade to face flat-side out.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura."

Mirata simply stared down her swiftly-approaching death with a maniacal smile, and Kaien couldn't help but think that this woman, as unhinged as she was, definitely had a reason for being so unblinking in the face of death by gruesome laceration. As her body fell bleeding to the floor, her clenched right hand opened limply to send a vial of clear liquid clinking on the stones. Kaien immediately flashed over, scooping the antidote up carefully.

"Take it," the mangled whisper of the dying princess hissed out. "It's meaningless anyway, Byakuya; your entire clan, including your whore of a fiancée, is already dead."

"What do you mean?" Kuchiki asked dangerously, after looking over his shoulder and giving Kaien a look that told him to get the antidote back to Kuukaku as soon as possible and not to wait for him.

"I sent my best squad of assassins to assault your Manor as soon as you two had left it behind," she said in a cackle that was slightly diluted by the blood flowing into her lungs. "Even if Shiba manages to get that cure back to his pathetic sibling in time, all he's going to find is an empty house full of rotting corpses.

"How does it feel, Byakuya Kuchiki?" she asked maliciously as the light of life faded slowly but surely from her eyes. "To be alone…?"

"Ask someone else, you wretch," Byakuya said stonily as he got to his feet and began to walk away, silken scarf flapping gently behind him as he thought of the faces of those he now called his family. "I do not know how it feels, for I am not alone."

With her last breath, Mirata clenched her other fist sharply. The action crushed a pair of white tablets that she had been palming until now, while a demented smile froze for good onto her face.

'Shit,' Byakuya heard Senbonzakura curse in his head, which got his attention in a heartbeat. 'That cretin just activated a large amount of Hollow Bait, Byakuya. If we don't get out of here now, then—'

A titanic surge of reiatsu stifled the rest of the warning, and Kuchiki flashed outside to behold a score of Hollows ripping dark gashes into the air around him. Once the number had stopped increasing, Byakuya glanced around at the ravenous horde, weighed his options and decided, of course, to do something monumentally risky and borderline-suicidal.

'Tell me you're not going to use it _now_, Byakuya,' Senbonzakura pleaded in his head. 'If something goes wrong, you'll be completely at the mercy of the survivors…'

"There won't be any survivors."

'But if something goes wrong…' she repeated strenuously, hoping to reason with her stubborn master.

"Nothing will go wrong," Byakuya reassured his worried blade. "Are you with me, or not?"

'Until death, Byakuya,' Senbonzakura sighed in resignation, 'which I fear will be soon in coming for the both of us…'

Kuchiki turned his sword point-down, stared pitilessly at the Hollows in front of him, and let go of his zanpakuto.

"_Bankai._"

* * *

Mirata had kept her word, and indeed a squad of skilled, ruthless assassins had descended upon the Kuchiki Manor like hellish locusts.

What they hadn't expected, however, was that Kisuke Urahara had alerted his fellow Captain Yoruichi Shihoin as to the identity of the Clan that had tried to murder her friend Kuukaku. What they also hadn't expected was that Yoruichi had heard of the planned assault on the Kuchiki family, and had taken appropriate actions to defend against it. And so, much to their shock and acute dismay, the skilled and ruthless assassins of the Zashigen clan found themselves up against an even more skilled and even more ruthless band of assassins known as the Secret Mobile Corps.

Needless to say, the intruders did not live to see the sun rise a few hours later.

Kuukaku was given the antidote as soon as Kaien arrived, and once the poison was flushed from her system nothing was going to keep her bedridden if she could help it. Despite Captain Unohana's protests she was up and walking within an hour, though limping slightly as she did so and occasionally wincing when the pain in her abdomen flared up again.

"You sure you don't want to lie down, kid?" Yoruichi asked her solicitously, but Shiba shook her off.

"Not a chance, Yoruichi," Kuukaku answered sharply. "When that punk gets back here, I wanna be able to punch him in his stupid, self-sacrificing face."

"I'm afraid you're going to have to wait until he wakes up, Lady Shiba," a calm, maternal voice spoke from the entrance to the great hall as the physical form of Senbonzakura emerged, carrying an unconscious but alive Byakuya Kuchiki in her arms. "Once he does, however," the spirit continued, "feel free to beat some sense into him; gods know he needs it."

"What happened to him?" Yoruichi asked concernedly, and Senbonzakura shook her head as she lay Byakuya down to rest on the bed that had, until recently, been Kuukaku's.

"I told him not to try to use it so soon after obtaining it," the zanpakuto bemoaned, "but of course he wouldn't listen to me."

"Use what?" Kuukaku pressed, and the ethereal woman smiled with tired warmth.

"His _bankai_, child."

Yoruichi's eyes all but bugged out of her head at those words.

"His _bankai_?" she half shouted. "Since when does Byakuya-bo have his _bankai_?!"

"Since he pushed himself to the brink of death to gain it, Lady Shihoin," Senbonzakura replied, but Yoruichi was still mildly confounded.

"But what would ever make him do something so stupid as to rush into obtaining his _bankai_?"

"The same reason you put up with your zanpakuto for as long as you did before forcing him to capitulate, Lady Shihoin," the spirit replied slyly. "Love."

"How do you—" Yoruichi breathed, shocked, but Senbonzakura merely faded away with a merry chuckle and nothing in the way of answers as the Captain stood there, stupefied.

"What?" an amused voice echoed in her head as her zanpakuto, Griffin, deigned to shed some light on the situation. "You think we were just sitting there quietly while you and the boy played your little games of _shunpo_ tag? Senbonzakura has plenty of dirt on you now, Mistress," he finished with vicious self-satisfaction, "so I suggest you never give her cause to share that knowledge with her master."

"Times like these," Yoruichi growled angrily, "I wonder why I even use you at all."

* * *

Byakuya woke up groggily a few hours later as the sunlight finally broke through the windows of the hall, blinking a few times to clear his vision and groaning as his sore muscles woke up as well.

"Morning, sunshine."

Kuchiki glanced over to see a pair of vibrant green eyes looking into his own, accompanied by that simultaneously radiant and vicious smile he had missed so much. Their roles were reversed, it seemed: he was lying in the bed, and Kuukaku was sitting in the chair he had once occupied, holding his hand. Once she was sure Byakuya was awake and fully aware, Kuukaku took the hand that was resting in hers and squeezed it as hard as she could.

"Kuukaku, what the hell—?" Byakuya forced out through the pain, but Shiba just squeezed harder and twisted, shutting him up with a hiss.

"Listen to me, you asshole," she said seriously, making sure their gazes were locked. "Don't you ever, ever, _ever_ make me worry like that again, got it?!"

"Are you crying, Kuukaku?" Byakuya asked, shocked, forcing the Shiba princess to blink sharply and sniffle slightly in a way Kuchiki found oddly adorable, or as adorable as someone like Kuukaku was capable of being.

"No," she denied petulantly before continuing as if she had never been interrupted. "Look, I can handle you being Captain of your grandfather's Division, Byakuya, and I'm fine with you doing everything those responsibilities require of you," Shiba continued seriously, "but one thing I am _not_ going to tolerate is you being a fucking moron. When we have kids, the last thing I'm going to want to tell them is that their daddy died because he was a total idiot and tried facing down hundreds of Hollows by himself!"

"_When_ we have kids, dearest?" Byakuya repeated slyly, smirking. "Not 'if'?"

Kuukaku turned a brilliantly atypical shade of red in shock at her slip, which lasted a few heartbeats before she reined herself back in and gave her fiancée a death glare.

"Shut up," she growled, and Byakuya's smirk widened.

"Make me."

"You keep talking like that," she said as she rose and joined him on the bed, "and I just might. You think you can take it, Byakushi? You look pretty worn out," she finished with mock-concern, and Kuchiki smiled with a predator's gleam in his eyes.

"Not as worn out as you're about to be, Kuukaku," he shot back, flipping their positions around with surprising speed and stilling the words on her tongue with a kiss.

* * *

**_One Year Later_**

Kaien, Byakuya and Yoruichi sat outside of the room in separate chairs, wincing in unison as a fresh round of curses and snarls reached their ears.

"I'm _so_ glad I'm not Captain Unohana right now," Kaien said after the outburst died down, and his two companions nodded.

"She can take it, though," Yoruichi commented almost offhandedly. "She's probably the only one in Soul Society who can. Geez, Byakuya-bo," she resumed after a moment of silence, "if feels like just yesterday you two got hitched. Didn't waste any time, didja?"

"You're one to talk, Shihoin," Kuchiki parried, gesturing to the slight swelling of his fellow Captain's belly that had just begun to show.

"Touché," Yoruichi replied, gently moving a hand over her abdomen and smiling. Before anyone could say anything else, however, Unohana emerged from the other room. She was exhausted and slightly shocked by the verbal abuse she had indirectly received, but still beamed nonetheless.

"Captain Kuchiki," she said warmly, "would you like to meet your daughters?"

"My… daughters?" he asked, stunned, while Yoruichi chimed in with her own question, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Plural, Captain Unohana?" she asked, and Retsu nodded.

"Indeed, she answered. "They are twins; of the fraternal type, it appears."

The trio got up and walked into the room, the two excited Shinigami trailing behind the still-awed Kuchiki.

Byakuya walked slowly over to his wife and looked down at the two tiny faces of the children she was currently holding gently and rocking back and forth. The babies looked right back up at him, curious but also comprehending. One of the two turned her attention back to her tired mother soon afterwards, but the second one held his stare and reached out with a tiny hand. Byakuya extended his forefinger and smiled despite himself when the tyke gripped onto it with all of her might, gurgling happily.

"Looks like we found daddy's little girl," Kuukaku said with a faint smile. "Maybe you can name her, then; this one's Hisana, but I'll be damned if I can think of a name for her sister."

Byakuya looked down at his daughter, her eyes already shining with life and infectious glee, and the name came to him as easily as his own.

"Rukia," he said, tenderly. "Your name is Rukia."

Rukia Kuchiki smiled as she drifted off to sleep, still clutching her father's finger and perfectly happy with the name he had given her.

* * *

**A/N:** 'Griffin' as a zanpakuto was created by the awesome **Philyra** and used by the fantastic **MatsuMama** in her great Urahara/Yoruichi story, _**Nebula**_. If you haven't read it yet, do so. Better yet, browse through these gals' collected works; they're all solid.

Just have the epilogue to go now, and I hope to see you all there!


	6. Epilogue

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach; Tite Kubo does. This story, however, is mine.

**Maelstrom**

**Epilogue: 150 Years Later

* * *

  
**

"So, princess," Byakuya asked quietly as he sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at his now-grown daughter, "does that answer your question?"

Rukia looked back at him with wide, brilliant violet eyes and said nothing for several moments as the story washed over her, before blinking and giving her father a wide smile.

"Yes, father," she replied, "it does. Can I ask you a question?" Rukia mumbled as she settled deeper under her covers, and Byakuya nodded.

"Of course."

"You said you attained your _bankai_ because you loved mother so much and had no choice other than to save her, right?"

"That's right," the Captain said, smiling faintly.

"So, do you think someone who's really, truly in love can do anything?"

Deciding to indulge his daughter, Byakuya's smile widened and he shrugged.

"I don't see why not," he answered, "if their resolve was strong enough."

"Even stand up to the Sogyoku?" Rukia pressed, and Byakuya's calm was almost overturned by the shock that hit him when he heard that word.

"What?"

"The Sogyoku," Rukia repeated, giving her father a smaller version of one of Kuukaku's stares of disbelief at having to repeat herself. "Uncle Kaien told me about it the other day. He said it's the strongest weapon ever made."

"Your point being what, exactly," Byakuya asked, "other than that your uncle has a big mouth and no filter?"

Rukia frowned in exasperation, shocked that it was taking her normally perceptive parent so long to understand her.

"I'm asking if you think someone who loved another person enough could save them from the Sogyoku, father."

"I am aware of that, Rukia," Byakuya parried, "but I fail to see how this is relevant. The odds of anyone you know being executed by the Sogyoku might as well be zero. I'd never let you try something that foolish in any case, least of all for that brat Kurosaki."

"Father!" the young Kuchiki half-shouted, the darkness of the room hiding her blush. "I am _not_ in love with Ichigo!"

"So it's first names now, is it?" Byakuya teased wryly, and Rukia was so stunned by both the implications of that statement and the fact that her father had just teased her that she could do nothing but lie there, mute, while the Kuchiki patriarch vanished in a flash of _shunpo_. A few moments later, Rukia came back to herself and rolled over onto her side with a huff.

"Boys are such idiots," she mumbled, clutching her ragged stuffed Chappy to her chest and drifting off to sleep at last.

* * *

"You," Byakuya said as he rejoined the dinner crowd at the table and pointed to his brother-in-law, "Are forbidden to speak to Rukia for a week."

"That'll be kind of difficult, Kuchiki," Kaien said around a mouthful of sushi, "considering I'm her Lieutenant. Why, what did the little spitfire say now?"

"She told me," the Captain of Sixth Division said icily, "that you told her about the Sogyoku the other day."

"So?" Kuukaku broke in from her place next to Miyako, her new sister-in-law. "I think it's great Rukia's interested in weaponry, Byakuya; I want to be able to spar with at least one of my kids, and Hisana's still as delicate as a freaking cherry blossom."

"A few more weeks with Abarai should knock that right out of her," Kaien broke in, laughing as Byakuya glared at him and catching a thrown piece of sushi in his chopsticks. "Tuna," he commented smugly, "my favorite. Really, brother, you're too kind."

"I hate you," Byakuya growled under his breath, before venting the rest of his anger on a poor piece of octopus.

"I must say, Byakuya," Miyako chimed in from her place, "I still believe you're acting shockingly cavalier considering the quality of male companion your daughters are keeping."

"I have no reason to be concerned," Kuchiki answered calmly, having regained his footing. "Renji is my Lieutenant, and if I cannot keep my eye on him I do not deserve to be a Captain."

"And Ichigo?" Kaien prodded, reveling in his role as antagonist. "How do you plan on keeping Zaraki's Hound at bay, Byakuya?"

Ichigo Kurosaki was the current Fourth Seat of Eleventh Division, and the word going around was that if Yachiru hadn't beaten him to it he could just as easily be the Lieutenant. It was Kuukaku, however, who answered her brother's question with a snort.

"'Hound'?" she repeated derisively. "Give me a break. That kid might have a terrifying level of power, but put him within twenty feet of Rukia and 'Zaraki's Hound' is nothing more than a whimpering puppy.

"Besides, if that Ichigo kid ever tries anything," Kuukaku finished, clenching the hand of the oaken arm that had been her wedding present into a fist, "_I'm_ going to rip that runt a new one, not Byakushi over there."

Kaien laughed hard once again, raising his sake cup in a toast.

"To Renji Abarai and Ichigo Kurosaki," he said theatrically, "the two unluckiest bastards in all of Soul Society!"

"Here, here," Kuukaku chorused, and the clinking of cups and ringing of laughter soon filled the room.

**The End**

**

* * *

A/N: **So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. I know I left some threads dangling at the end there, like where did Ichigo come from in this timeline, but that gives me something to return to if I ever decide to continue this plotline in another story. For now, the tale of how Byakuya and Kuukaku met, fell in love and did many other things besides has been told, and that's what really counts. As always, let me know what you thought, and I hope you enjoyed this story!


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